SILVA LANES

champs Cortez Schenck & Cerra Strickland

        Cortez Schenck and Cerra Strickland continued excellent JBT seasons with wins in exciting New Mexico-Texas Conference action at Albuquerque's Silva Lanes.

        Chris Brown opened the scratch division stepladder finals with a 214-183 win over Danny Cobine.  Brown then got by Sara Vargas 211-189.  In the semifinals, Jeremiah Martin made his first scratch title match with a 204-180 win over Brown.

        Top seed Schenck, along with Jakob Butturff, has been dominating the Tour this season, and while Jakob won a JBT event in Las Vegas the day before, Cortez responded in style by routing the field here, and then beat Martin 236-195 for the title.  It's the 16th win of the 14 year-old's amazing JBT career.

       Joey Balisteri began a climb up the handicap division stepladder with a 234-204 win over Amber Cordova.  Joey then defeated Nathaniel Duran 205-181.  Katie McNeil then stopped Balistreri 241-182 to reach the title match.

        Both McNeil sisters have been so close to JBT singles titles in the past, and a tight match between Katie (third in points going into the weekend) and top seed Cerra Strickland (second going in) may have been their best chance yet.  In the end though, Cerra won in a 188-185 thriller. 

        Strickland won her third career JBT title with the win, and thickened the plot in the Bowler of the Year race as well.  Cerra and Katie both leap previous leader Kory Hetmer, who still only trails Cerra by 20.  In scratch, Cortez' first and third on the weekend was amazingly only good enough to LOSE 36 points to Butturff, who swept the Vegas weekend, but he did close almost the whole gap against NM leader Brown .  These are just three of the great races as the Tour heads into the spring.

        Sara Vargas stopped Cerra's bid for a double win on the day by beating her 224-158 for the day's Women's Series title.  It's her fourth win, so you'll see her at the Girls TPC this July.

        Thanks as always to Silva for hosting us.  Want in on the terrific fun and excitement of JBT?  Just check out our schedule and come on down!